Your 30-60-90-day plan as a new manager

Landed a new manager position? Congratulations! Here's how to plan for your first days in the role.


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Starting a new job as an engineering manager can be overwhelming. In between onboarding and getting to know your direct reports, you need to familiarize yourself with the tech stack, tooling, operations, and rhythm of the business. A 30-60-90-day plan can set you up for success in your new job. Here’s how to write one for a smooth transition.
What is a 30-60-90-day plan?
A 30-60-90-day plan is a tool for new managers or managers new to their role to gain clarity of what’s expected from them. It allows you to identify the largest challenges, and set goals. It serves as a guide, a resource, and a checklist. It’s a key part of a robust onboarding process. It’s a reminder of priorities, and defines what you plan to accomplish in the time frame.
When I moved from managing the JavaScript Cloud Advocacy team at Microsoft to managing multiple teams, drafting a 30-60-90-day plan helped me think about priorities, set realistic time-bound expectations, and identify the highest priorities for myself and my teams. I used it as a checklist for my goals, as well as who to meet with.
Six tips for making a 30-60-90-day plan
1. think big picture.
Start by identifying your big goals for the first three months, then break it down into manageable tasks for each month. Reflect on your overall priorities and identify why the company hired you. Does your team have specific long-term goals? Is there anything particularly important that senior leadership wants to see?
Start with what’s important for you. Think about the steps it’ll take to set yourself on track to be successful in the role long-term. Identify how short-term goals feed into the bigger picture.
2. Set smart goals
In each stage of your strategy plan, your goals should be SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-bound. Try to be concise with your plan. Instead of, “Meet many product stakeholders”, try, “Schedule 5 initial 1:1s with product stakeholders in the first 30 days”, and “Set up 3 regular 1:1s with stakeholders outside of my organization within 60 days”. This way, you can measure your progress.
3. Be a sponge
Ask your manager and stakeholders what you can tackle in the first 90 days that will allow you to hit the ground running, as well as make a significant impact in the organization. Ask many questions about the company, culture, goals, and challenges. Soak up as much information as you can. Read existing strategy documents like annual road maps or objectives and key results (OKRs). Understanding existing OKRs is a great way to get a better sense of the current status of direction of different teams. Try to get your hands on ORKs for your team, your larger org, and cross-functional partner teams.
4. Meet, meet, meet
Relationships are crucial for leaders. Meet with your peers (the direct reports of your manager), coworkers with a similar role to you, anybody you’ll work with regularly outside your organization, and, if possible, the previous manager of your team. Ask many questions to understand the big picture. In each meeting, learn about the other person’s role in the company and get to know them as a person. Look them up on LinkedIn before the meeting. Maybe you have a shared interest to connect on a more personal level. I recommend listening as much as possible when you’re new, but also having a light agenda prepared, so these first meetings go more smoothly.
5. Be flexible
Remember, the 30-60-90 plan is less of a strict plan and more a general direction. The thinking and reflecting that goes into the creation of the plan is valuable in itself. Regularly check into your plan and be flexible to adjust it.
6. Level set expectations with your manager
It’s important to discuss your 30-60-90-day plan with your direct manager. Ask them to point out gaps and tasks that should be deprioritized. This helps to establish a shared understanding of expectations for your role, and clarifies short- and long-term goals.
An example 30-60-90 plan
Here’s a sample plan that you can adapt to your own position. Every role and company is unique, so don’t expect to use this plan exactly as it is, but it should make it easier than starting with a blank piece of paper.
Highest priority goals
- Establish a rapport with each direct report
- Build relationships with peers and partners
- Deliver on project X
Biggest challenges
- Lack of clarity for team priorities
- Recent attrition of key players
Dates: July 1–July 31, 2022 Highest-priority goal(s): Understand current challenges of the team Actions:
- Establish weekly 1:1 with each report
- Set up 1:1s with peers
- Learn about goals and challenges of Y
- Get familiar with Z
Dates: August 1–August 31, 2022 Highest priority goal(s): Establish professional connections with the team Actions:
- Career discussions with reports
- Schedule a meeting with skip manager
- Learn team members' strengths and weaknesses.
- Evaluate team members' recent work performance.
- Prioritize which projects need my attention
- Coordinate with the team to optimize existing processes
- Identify goals and identify whether the current resources are enough to achieve them
Dates: September 1–September 30, 2022 Highest priority goal(s): Build cross-team collaboration Actions:
- Plan the roadmap for the next quarter
- Eliminate processes that don't work and replace them with optimized ones
- Improve communication tools and processes
Reflections
While an exact 30-60-90-day plan is almost never possible for an engineering manager, it’s important to begin a new job with goals. You might not check off everything on your plan, and you might complete some items earlier than expected. But the plan will be a useful tool for developing a strategy and aligning with your manager. Good luck!
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30 60 90 Plan For Managers: a Beginner’s Guide

New managers deal with a lot of emotions as they just join the company. They are excited to change the world of the organization they are working in, they are bursting with improvement and optimization ideas, they are eager to prove themselves and show how good of a manager they are.
At the same time, there is a lot of stress and uncertainty associated with a new job, especially a fresh management position, such as anxiety, imposter syndrome, stress, fear of failure.
One of the proven ways to support new managers in this tricky time is the 30 60 90 day plan .
It is a technique that helps structure the first crucial quarter in the company. It is sort of an action plan that guides managers through what needs to be paid attention to within the first 30 days, then the second and third months of employment.
Tip: All new managers can benefit from learning about different management styles . Some of them are better, and some of them are worse. Ultimately, each style has a lesson or two that can be taught to every one of us.
The key goals of the plan are to help the individual achieve the most within the timeframe and make a good impression on the team and the senior management. It helps stay focused, set the goals, work towards them, and, ultimately, succeed.
What is a 30 60 90 day plan?
The 30 60 90 day plan is a guideline for the first three months of the manager’s employment that can go along with the usual new hire training. It is usually created on the last stage of the interview process or in the first few weeks of employment.

The plan acts as a new employee’s north star that helps them reach main onboarding milestones and feel confident with their new job by the end of the third month. It also makes sure that the new manager’s goals align with what the company strives to achieve.
The plan drops down the 3 months into little sprints with actionable goals and targets, guaranteeing future success.
Some of the main goals of the 30 60 90 day plan include:
- Getting to know the team.
- Making the right first impression.
- Making your mark.
- Positioning yourself as a leader.
- Defining the future scope of work.
The three key elements of focus in the 30 60 90 day plan are the 3 Ps:

The plan is practiced by thousands of people allowing them to jump into a completely foreign environment and emerge as a fully functioning managers by the end of the onboarding period.
Tip: Starting a new job is always hard, especially with a leadership position. The stress can easily throw you off, so to get back in shape or to stay in control, it’s good to keep in touch with someone who can listen to you and mentor you a little bit. Alternatively, there are many useful resources online, such as tips for learning faster , articles on how successful people plan their days , and all about managing a remote team . Keep your mind busy with consuming new information to be less distracted by stress and anxiety in the new role.
First 30 days
The first 30 days are for adjusting to the new role’s learning curve, making impressions, and getting to know the team and the environment.
The main task for this period is to build healthy communication and develop relationships with the team.
Building relationships can be tricky in the office setting. If you are not sure where to start, here are some topic ideas that we recommend covering during your first catch-ups:
- Occupation right now and before.
- Professional strengths and weaknesses.
- Career goals and motivation.
- Perception of the current state of things in the team, company, or industry.
- Personal life – hopes and dreams, family, hobbies.
- Fun and crazy stories from your professional life.
Pro-tip: don’t be too serious all the time. Joking and casual chats help relax into the conversation and have a genuine talk. If you’re not sure how to ease up, check out our list of icebreakers that work great for online and in-person meetings.
The second goal is absorbing all information and vibes. Ask everyone to share their feedback, current issues, insight into some patterns within the company. Observe the team’s work style and the company’s culture code. Read between the lines, listen to how people talk about specific things to catch the subliminal messages.
The third goal is to make a small change to build trust and credibility with the team and to show your management that you are making progress. We recommend making a change associated with feedback or complaint you received from somebody in the team.
Gently challenge the current status quo. Bring in the new perspective, question established beliefs, and your own team’s processes.

At the same time, don’t rush getting to execution and decision-making. You will have all the time of the world later to be a manager at your new job, but now your focus should be on different things.
30 to 60 days
The second period of the 30 60 90 day plan is the time to dig deeper and become more active. By the end of the second month, the new manager should have a vision and a preliminary plan of action.
During this time, it is recommended to run evaluations (for example, SWOT) and analyze the team’s existing strategy to strengthen the understanding of the current situation within the team and organization as a whole.
Make another change – big or small – associated with something that you’ve uncovered within the second 30 days. Show the team and your boss that you are not just messing around, asking questions, and playing with business techniques, but there is a purpose to everything you do and everyone receives value from it.
By the end of the period, you should have proven to the team and your management that you can contribute to the overall success and you are ready to start making and implementing decisions.
Also, it is during the second month that you should determine the top goals to knock out this year. We recommend using Bordio’s free to-do list as a single point for all your goals (big and small), as well as observations.
How to write goals during your second month in the company
Everybody’s goal planning process looks different. Here are a few tips to help you deal with the process efficiently and effectively.
1. Identify the businesses’ key needs and targets and keep them in mind. Look at the annual targets and goals that are shared with you. But also consider things like the company’s mission.
2. Assign all goals to different categories:
- Performance goals – what targets do you want to achieve. For example, execute 10 campaigns with the social media team.
- Learning goals – being in the know is so important for managers and all employees in general, so learning more about industry, company, new skills is key.
- Initiative goals – something you would like to introduce to the company, like a new strategy or methodology to support the company’s growth and improve performance. For example, you want to introduce a new cooperation process with the sales team or new marketing initiatives to get more leads from your core target audience.
- Personal goals – what are your goals outside of the core job responsibilities. Things like building rapport with somebody in the company, finding a mentor, or even becoming one.
It is vital to be growing on a professional and personal level together, not just focusing on business for 6 months, and then switching it up.
3. Prioritize the goals and classify them across the next 12 months. How do you prioritize? Look at:
- Time sensitivity.
- Importance to you or the business.
- Ease of deployment.

Tip: Don’t wait for too long to act on the goals you defined. Use Bordio’s calendar planner online to create first tasks and time blocks to work on the targets that you’ve set up for yourself and the team.
4. Estimate what kind of resources and how many of them your goals will require. Remember to get resource approval to complete your plans before you start executing them.
By the way, if you’d like to learn more about goal setting and other productive habits, check out the Productivity Tips Everyone Needs to Adopt article on our blog.
60 to 90 days
The final part of the 30 60 90 day plan is all about finalizing what was started earlier and making the last adjustments to personal goals and professional plans.
At this point, the new manager needs to put the final touches on the analysis they’ve started earlier. Put everyone’s commentary and insight together, add your perceptions now after you’ve been with the company for a while. By the end of this exercise, there should be a list of tasks that have to be sorted.
Here, we recommend using the impact analysis to prioritize all tasks in a way that encourages you to concentrate on work that takes the least effort and generates the most reward, slowly moving towards more complicated and least rewarding activities.
Impact analysis resembles the Eisenhower matrix but it uses slightly different criteria: level of impact and ease of completion. For example, a task can have a high impact and take little effort to complete, or have a high impact and be difficult to complete.

Now is also the time to be more active during meetings, and to start making more decisions and suggesting new ideas to elevate the working process and help the team achieve their targets.
Tip: Check out the guide on maintaining and boosting accountability in the hybrid team with tips that are also applicable to the fully remote or in-office teams.
By the end of the 90 days period, you should have already established yourself as a leader who is respected and trusted.
All the boxes should be ticked:
- You understand your role and responsibilities fully.
- Work culture and inner team dynamics are clear to you.
- You are familiar with everyone on the team, but also senior management and all key stakeholders.
- You are perceived as a leader and everyone is comfortable with sharing their thoughts or ideas with you.
- You work and collaborate with other teams on cross-related projects and tasks.
- You have regular meetings scheduled with all team members.
- Your personal goals within the career field are being worked on.
- There is a summary of your first 3 months in the company that you can share with your boss or hiring manager.
Bonus tip 1: For extra credit from your hiring manager, or to ease your onboarding, include a pre-start section to your 30 60 90 day plan.
There, you can plan for getting acquainted with company guides or handbooks, documentation, industry nuances before starting the new job. It is also good to run your own competitive research to make sure you get the most objective view on where the company stands in the market. This bit of extra time dedicated to researching and learning can help ease the anxiety and stress of the first days immensely.
Additionally, you will demonstrate your commitment and serious intentions about the job. But please don’t spend too much time on that as, after all, you have not yet officially started working and your personal time is very valuable too.
Bonus tip 2: Set up your own performance metrics.
Your company no doubt has an onboarding and a professional development plan for you. But those plans rarely match your personal goals 100%. So, if you want to make sure you are moving in the right direction long-term, set up your own KPIs in addition to the company’s key performance metrics. Create regular check-ins in your weekly planner online to track your progress. Whether you share your personal goals with the management or not is completely up to you.
Final thoughts on 30 60 90 plan For managers
A new job creates just as much fear as it does excitement. Yet, with a structured plan in place, new managers can power through this stressful time and have great results in the end.
A good 30 60 90 day plan can do wonders for a new manager’s adaptation in the organization. It helps run a smooth transition from a new team member to an important component of the company and a key contributor to its success.
The plan itself is not set in stone and can be changed and altered to meet one’s specific situation and requirements. The key to having a successful plan is to make it gradual. Yes, time is money and there is always so much to do, but the smart 30 60 90 day plan will ensure a comfortable pace that allows healthy immersing into the new environment.
The right software can make a huge difference in this process, so if you are looking for a single tool for personal and professional goals, then Bordio’s daily planner might be just for you.

Bordio allows separation between work and personal projects, has a convenient calendar view with timers and time blocks to assist with the planning and execution of the tasks. The waiting list is a perfect place for all ideas that you want to bring to life but didn’t schedule yet. Bordio is perfect for productive work and staying on top of all your goals, plans, and deadlines.

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The Best 30-60-90 Day Plan for Your New Job [Template + Example]

Published: December 29, 2022
Worry often comes along with the excitement of a new job. What if you can't adapt to new people, processes, and team-wide dynamics quickly enough to make a great impression?

Fortunately, there's a way to organize and prioritize your time and tasks, helping you seamlessly adapt to your new environment: The 30-60-90 day plan. Creating and following an effective plan enables you to soak in as much information as possible, master your core job responsibilities, and make a lasting impact on your new team.
In this post, we'll cover everything you need to know about building the best 30-60-90 day plan for your new job.
![30 60 90 day plan new manager Download Now: Sales Training & Onboarding Template [Free Tool]](https://no-cache.hubspot.com/cta/default/53/1dc09795-02c8-4fbe-a62b-a1d669dec2c5.png)
30-60-90 Day Plan
A 30-60-90 day plan lays out a clear course of action for a new employee during the first 30, 60, and 90 days of their new job. By setting concrete goals and a vision for one's abilities at each stage of the plan, you can make the transition into a new organization smooth and empowering.
Learning the nuances of your new role in less than three months won't be easy. But crafting a strong 30-60-90 day plan is your best bet for accelerating your development and adapting to your new work environment as quickly as possible.
There are two situations where you'd write a 30-60-90 day plan: during the final stages of an interview process and during the first week of the job itself. Here's how each type can be executed:
30-60-90 Day Plan for Interview
Some hiring managers ask candidates to think about and explain their potential 30-60-90 day plan as a new hire. They want to see if they can organize their time, prioritize the tasks they'd likely take on, and strategize an approach to the job description.
For a new hire, a well thought-out 30-60-90 day plan is a great way to help the hiring manager visualize you in the role and differentiate yourself from all other candidates.
Of course, it can be difficult to outline your goals for yourself before you accept a new job. So, how are you supposed to know what those goals are? Start with the job description. Normally, open job listings have separate sections for a job's responsibilities and a job's qualifications. Work to find commonalities in these two sections, and how you might turn them into goals for yourself staggered over the course of three months.
For example, if a job requires three years of experience in Google Analytics, and the responsibilities include tracking the company's website performance every month, use these points to develop an action plan explaining how you'll learn the company's key performance metrics (first 30 days), strengthen the company's performance in these metrics (next 30 days), and then lead the team toward a better Google Analytics strategy (last 30 days).
30-60-90 Day Plan for New Job
The second situation where you'd write a 30-60-90 day plan is during the first week of a new job. If you're the hiring manager, this plan will allow you to learn how the new employee operates, address any of their concerns or preconceived notions about the role, and ultimately help them succeed.
If you're starting a new job, and are not asked to craft a 30-60-90 day plan during the first week of that job, it's still a good idea to write one for yourself. A new job can feel like a completely foreign environment during the first few months, and having a plan in place can make it feel more like home.
Even though 90 days is the standard grace period for new employees to learn the ropes, it's also the best time to make a great first impression.
How long should a 30-60-90 day plan be?
While there's no set length for a 30-60-90 day plan, it should include information about onboarding and training, set goals that you're expected to hit by the end of each phase, and all the people to meet and resources to review in support of those goals. This can result in a document that's 3-8 pages long, depending on formatting.
The purpose of your plan is to help you transition into your new role, but it should also be a catalyst for your career development. Instead of just guiding you over your job's learning curve, the goals outlined in your plan should push you to perform up to your potential and raise your bar for success at every stage.
Free 30/60/90 Day Onboarding Template
Fill out the form to get the template., parts of a 30-60-90 day plan.
An effective 30-60-90 day plan consists of three larger phases — one for days 1-30, one for days 31-60, and one for days 61-90.
Each phase has its own goal. For example, the goal in the first 30 days is to learn as much as possible about your new job. The next 30 focus on using learned skills to contribute, and the last 30 are about demonstrating skill mastery with metrics and taking the lead on new challenges.
Each phase also contains components that help define goals and describe desired outcomes. These parts include:
The primer is a general overview of what you hope to achieve during the current 30-day period. It's worth sitting down with your manager to pinpoint a primer that's in line with both your goals and desired company outcomes.
The theme is a quick-hitter sentence or statement that sums up your goals for the period. For example, your theme might be "find new opportunities", "take initiative," or "be a sponge."
Learning Goals
Learning goals focus on skills you want to learn or improve to drive better outcomes at your job. For example, if you're responsible for creating website content at your company, you might want to learn new HTML or CSS skills .
Performance Goals
Performance goals speak to specific metrics that demonstrate improvement. These might include making one more content post per week or reducing the number of revisions required by management.
Initiative Goals
Initiative goals are about thinking outside the box to discover other ways you can contribute. This might mean asking your manager about taking ownership of new website changes or upgrades with a specific deadline in mind.
Personal Goals
Personal goals focus on company culture — are there ways you can improve relationships with your team members or demonstrate your willingness to contribute?

This shows that you care about their opinion and trust their expertise while getting unique perspectives from multiple vantage points in the organization. Plus, if you start hearing some of the same points from multiple team members, you'll be able to identify the biggest pains, equipping you to make the highest impact changes.
Identify the A players on the team.
An A player is a member of your team that goes above and beyond what's expected in their role. While not every employee will be an A player, you'll want to ensure that critical roles and teams have at least one A player to lead, inspire, and strengthen camaraderie.
From there, you can figure out the existing gaps in staffing and training, whether it's team members who need a lot of guidance and must be coached up to performance or empty roles that need to be filled altogether.
Create goals based on what you've learned.
When you are interviewing or shortly after you're hired, you'll get a feel for the types of pains that the executive team has and the objectives in mind for bringing you on.
Once you have more context about how the organization works, you can take this vision and translate it into concrete, measurable goals that will take your department to the next level.
Diagnose process issues.
Companies of all sizes run into operational issues as they implement processes that are efficient and work at scale. Sometimes, when an executive team isn't aligned with middle management, processes can become unwieldy.
Learn why things are done the way they are and then figure out if there are workarounds you can implement to streamline operations. Perhaps it's as simple as eliminating bottlenecks or adding automation to certain functions.
Put together and implement a hiring plan.
You know your A and B players, and you hopefully have a plan to retain, invest in, and mentor them. However, you'll likely come across gaps that you need to fill and positions that need to be created to eliminate bottlenecks. From there, you'll want to create a hiring plan to execute, both for short-term, middle-term, and long-term needs.
Effect changes in operations.
Speaking of bottlenecks, your final 30 days of your plan should be focusing on the areas of the business that can achieve the results the fastest. Once you've identified these, you can focus on removing these roadblocks to start hitting goals and achieving higher performance.
Contribute to broader company goals.
As a member of the executive team, you'll also be looped in one high-level company initiatives, and the other executives of the company will be relying on you to contribute your deep discipline, expertise, and experience.
Be ready to lean in on executive meetings and contribute to the vision and strategy of the organization as it moves forward.

To write challenging yet feasible performance goals, you need to:
Understand your team's goals.
Try to understand the purpose behind your team's goals. It'll give you more insight into why you and your team should achieve them, motivating you to work as hard as possible to meet those goals.
Identify top priorities.
By connecting your personal responsibilities to your team's goals, you'll know exactly how to align your tasks with the needs of the team, which keeps you accountable and compels you to help your team achieve their goals.
Define specific progress measurements.
Tracking your progress helps you gauge your performance and rate of improvement. To see how you're doing, set up weekly meetings with your manager to ask her what she thinks of your work and track the improvement of your own performance metrics, like the growth of your blog posts' average views or the amount of qualified leads your eBooks generate.
Reaching your performance goals isn't the only path toward future success in your new role, though. You also need to study the ins and outs of your team and company, take initiative, and develop relationships with coworkers — all things that a lot of new hires underestimate the importance of.
Consider setting the following types of goals during each stage of your 30-60-90 day plan:
- Learning Goals How will you absorb as much information as possible about your company, team, and role?
- Initiative Goals - What will you do to stand out?
- Personal Goals - How will you integrate with your company and team?
Aiming to achieve these types of goals will help you hit the ground running in all the right areas of your job. And if you stick to your plan, you'll notice you'll be able to spend less time learning and more time executing.
30-60-90 Day Plan Template

Download Your Free Template
HubSpot's 30-60-90 day plan template includes space for all key elements of your plan — primers, themes, and goals — making it easy for both you and your manager to see exactly where you are in the plan, what comes next, and how things are going so far.
While our template is a great starting point, it's worth cross-referencing this high-level plan with a more detailed description of your goals and desired outcomes to ensure you're aligned with company expectations.
30-60-90 Day Plan Example
Using our template, we've created a quick 30-60-90 plan example for new employees.
Many new hires are eager to impress, so they dive head-first into their work or try to make suggestions about their team's process with limited experience in how their new team operates. But have patience.
Understanding your company's vision and your team's existing strategy is crucial for producing high-quality work and actually making an impact. If you don't know the purpose behind your role or the optimal way to perform, you'll risk missing the mark and your early efforts won't pay off the way you expect them to.
It's always better to over-prepare than under-prepare. And it's okay to take time to learn the ropes — it pays huge dividends in the long run. In the first 30 days of your employment, your priority is to be a sponge and soak in as much information as possible. Once you do that, you can then try to improve more specific parts of your team's work style.
Theme: Be a Sponge
- Study my company's mission, vision, and overarching strategy.
- Read my company's culture code to learn more about our company culture and why we implement it.
- Read the customer persona and target audience overview to truly understand who our customers are, their pain points, and how our product and content can help them.
- Meet with my team's director to learn about how meeting our goals will help our business grow.
- Read up on our team's new SEO strategy, editorial process, and traffic goals.
- Learn how to use the SEO Insights Report to plan and structure blog posts.
- Review my team's pillar-cluster model overview and understand how to match posts to clusters.
- Meet with my manager to learn more about her expectations.
- Complete new hire training and pass the test with a 90% or higher.
- Be able to write 3 blog posts per week.
- Run the Facebook Instant Article experiment that my manager recommended me to do.
- Grab coffee with everyone on my team, so I can get to know them on a professional and personal level.
By the end of your first 60 days, you should ramp up your workload, start overachieving, and make a name for yourself on your team.
To do this, start speaking up more at meetings. Don't be afraid to share your ideas about improving your team's processes. This shows you're quickly conquering the learning curve and recognizing some flaws that your colleagues might have overlooked. You still have a fresh perspective on the company, so your insight is invaluable.
Theme: Be a Contributor
- Learn how to optimize a new post from scratch based on both the SEO Insights Report and my own competitive research.
- Read every other marketing team's wiki page to learn about other marketing initiatives and how our entire department works together to grow our business.
- Deep dive into my company's product roadmap and strategy to fully grasp our mission and vision.
- Be able to write 5 blog posts per week.
- Be down to one cycle of edits per post.
- Understand how to edit a guest post -- clean up at least one rough draft.
- Share content strategy ideas at my team's monthly meeting and ask if I can spearhead the project to boost blog traffic.
- Ask my manager if I can oversee Facebook messenger and Slack distribution strategy.
- Meet with my colleagues on other teams to learn about their marketing initiatives and develop relationships outside of my team.
By the end of your first three months, you should have a firm grasp of your role, feel confident about your abilities, and be on the cusp of making a breakthrough contribution to your team. Instead of reacting to problems that pop up at random, be proactive and spearhead a new initiative for your team.
You should also be cognizant of how you can collaborate with other teams to improve your own team's processes. By taking on some new projects outside of your main role, you'll start turning some heads and catch the attention of the department at large.
Theme: Be a Leader
- Do an analysis of my highest and lowest-performing blog post to date. How can I use this information to optimize new content so it performs better out of the gate?
- Be comfortable with writing five blog posts per week
- Edit one guest post per week
- Try to have 75% of my blog posts not require revisions.
- Write at least one new post that generates over 10,000 views in one month.
- Ask SEO team if they want to partner with the product marketing team to brainstorm content topics related to our product road map.
- Ask social media team if they're willing to develop a relationship where we can share each other's content.
- Ask sales team what our customers' pain points are, so we can write content that our target audience craves and help them close more qualified leads.


Theme: Cultivate Staff Connections
- Identify strengths for all team members.
- Pinpoint current challenges in accomplishing team goals.
- Encourage staff connections through honest communication.
- Reduce project completion times by 25 percent.
- Increase team member output by 5 percent.
- Establish a mentorship connection with one staff member looking to advance in their role.
- Arrange one out-of-work activity for staff.
For the second month, team leaders may want to focus on putting the connections they've made to good use and creating a mindset of success across the department. In practice, this means establishing clear goals and specific metrics and working alongside staff to deliver key outcomes.
Theme: Create a Culture of Success
- Understand where previous team leaders have struggled.
- Identify common themes in goals not being met.
- Clearly define starting points, milestones, and end goals for projects.
- Ensure current project deadlines are met.
- Deliver at least one project component ahead of schedule.
- Take ownership of one complex task to continue developing team culture.
- Based on current project goals, brainstorm two new potential projects.
- Look for ways to integrate current efforts with sales, marketing, or social media teams.
- Make time for mindfulness practice at work to help improve your focus.
The last month of your 30-60-90 plan may focus on ensuring the framework you've built can be replicated on the next team project and finding new opportunities for your team members to excel.
Theme: Identify New Opportunities
- Convene with staff to see what worked and what didn't during the project.
- Look for outcomes that exceeded expectations and discover what sets them apart to help drive improved processes.
- Become confident in assigning staff specific tasks with minimal oversight.
- Create a regular performance review structure that focuses on helping staff achieve their best work.
- Identify areas for reasonable cost-savings that don't disrupt current processes.
- Look for team members with a passion for leadership and encourage their growth.
- Transition into a more hands-off leadership style that demonstrates trust in employee autonomy.
- Take up a new hobby to avoid getting burned out at work.

Making the Most of Your First Months
The first few months at a new job are critical in answering key questions: Is the company a good fit? Can you meet (and exceed) expectations? What does your long-term career plan look like?
Building a robust 30-60-90 day plan can take some of the pressure off by providing a framework for success that combines big ideas with specific goals to help drive success.
Editor's note: This post was originally published in April 2019 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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Use this template to set up a 30/60/90 day sales training and onboarding plan.
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The Ultimate Guide on 30 60 90 Day Plan For Managers

Taking up a new manager role in an organization is exciting. The new opportunity comes with a lot of perks and a zeal to prove yourself. But it also comes with anxiety and uncertainty. Are you going to be an effective leader and deliver superior results for your business? Most importantly, do you know everything you need to be able to deliver effectively in your new role? The most effective way for a leader to create results and build culture is to adopt a rolling focus, 30 60 90 day plan for managers.
This plan is designed to help new managers focus on the 3 elements: people, process, and product, and help them prioritize areas of emphasis in the first 90 days. One of the key ingredients for a successful plan is the ability to define clear and realistic goals . Our first section clearly guides you through developing clear, relevant, and measurable smart goals.
Table of Contents
Art Of Goal Setting
Identify – Classify – Prioritize
While the plan’s main objective is to help you transition smoothly to your new role, it should also push you to perform better and raise the bar for yourself. Hence the plan should consist of practical, measurable, and focused goals for you and your team.
To write challenging and realistic goals for each of the 30 60 90 day periods, follow the approach below:
Identify the key objectives of the business. What are the targets, milestones, and strategies needed to accomplish those objectives? How would these targets translate into objectives and timelines for your team?
It helps you to align yourself with your management and business objectives , and also understand the strategic initiatives of the organization. Find the quantifiable parameters, that allow you to gauge your success. For eg, for a sales team, the number of sales made in a month is a definite and quantifiable target.
Classify the above goals into four categories
Learning Goals
Initiative goals, personal goals, performance goals.
Once you have listed and classified all your goals, they must be arranged in the order of their priority. For each of the 30,60 and 90 day periods, the listed goals must be prioritized, based on the business objectives, time constraints, and feasibility
Now that you know how to define and quantify realistic goals for 30 60 90 day plans, let us see what kind of goals go into different periods of the plan.
The 30 Day Plan
Be A Sponge, And Absorb As Much Information As Possible!
The 30-day period of your 30 60 90 plans is all about familiarizing oneself with as many aspects of your role and the organization as possible. Many managers are eager to get started and get into execution mode too soon. The first 30 days period requires a little bit of patience. The focus of the first 30 days should be all about absorbing and learning about the business, environment, and team as much as possible.
Spend time understanding your team’s existing strategy, and past triumphs. Understand their dynamics and recognize their strengths and weaknesses. Focus on your company’s vision the work ethic and the environment in the organization. The aim is to learn the exact purpose of your role, how it fits in the entire machinery of the organization, and how to perform it optimally.
Some examples of the different goals that can be a part of the 30 day plan are,
- Study the organization’s vision, mission, and strategy.
- Learn about the company hierarchy , culture, and code of conduct.
- Meet with the senior executives of the company.
- Understand the company’s target audience and the product/service it provides.
- Learn about the existing team and their expectations.
- Meet your manager and learn about their expectations.
- Read up on the company’s existing strategy, past triumphs, and past failures.
- Learn about all the different departments of the organization, and how they contribute to the organization.
- Research on the competition of your organization, and how your department can help the company to get ahead.
- Run an initial stage experimental strategy, in consultation with your manager.
- Maintain the team’s current performance output.
- Interact with each team member, and senior management, and get to know them better.
- Identify a mentor from senior management to take advice on a periodic basis to ensure you are on the right track and in alignment with company objectives
The 60 Day Plan
Become A Contributor And Let The Team And Management Get Confidence That You Are Ready To Get Actively Started On the Execution
At the end of 60 days of your 30 60 90 day plan, you should have already established a positive image for yourself. People must know you as a contributor, team player, and good listener. You should be able to share your ideas freely, speak more at meetings, contribute to the overall progress, and help improve the team’s functioning. You should increase your workload, and ramp up your personal progress.
The following goals can be a part of your 60 day plan,
- Learn about how to optimize the processes of your team and business.
- Understand the entire product roadmap, and identify key strategic areas where you can contribute.
- Devise a strategy or define a roadmap based on the business objectives and get consensus from Senior Management and team members.
- Based on the approved strategy, spearhead the execution strategy by initiating many projects from scratch.
- Take more responsibility in current initiatives
- Increase the team’s productivity.
- Smooth out the kinks in the team’s workflow.
- Take at least one existing project to successful completion.
- Develop relationships outside of your team.
- Actively organize team bonding events like team lunches or Fun Fridays, to increase team bonding.
The 90 Day Plan
Become A Leader Who Is Well Trusted And Respected
By the end of 90 days, you should really be feeling one with the organization. You should have a firm grasp of your role and the work culture around you. Personally, you should be familiar with everyone on your team and all the stakeholders that are related to your business. You must build on what you have learned in the first 60 days and work more towards execution. People must view you as a leader, and be comfortable with sharing ideas and experiences with you. Also by this time, you can take up projects outside of your roles, and collaborate more with the other teams.
The following targets can go in the 90 day plan,
- Take note of the key learnings that come from an analysis of the major successes and failures of the execution from the last 60 days.
- Initiate a collaboration between cross-functional teams of the organization, and spearhead various initiatives
- Define new KPIs for the team.
- Now that you know the current policies adequately, you can propose changes to them for more effective business practices
- Deliver superior results on the projects that you head.
- Ramp up the output of your team by 10 percent.
- Perform better on the business’s feedback.
- Hire all the vacant positions on the team
- Join an activity club or group in the organization.
Notice how with each period, the number of learning goals decreases, and the number of performance and initiative goals increases. Hence a 30-60 90-day action plan helps you to smoothly transition from a new manager to an integral part of the organization, with the greatest efficiency.
30 60 90 Day Plan Template Examples
Below you can find some 30 60 90 Day Plan Examples in PowerPoint Templates and Google Slides Templates to effectively articulate your plan to senior management.
1. This is a 30 60 90 day sample plan for new managers who have just been onboarded in the organization.
5. We have compiled an extensive collection of different ways of showing your 30 60 90 day plan.
The 30 60 90 Day Plan Templates allow you to decide on the key priorities and the action plan for the quarter. Using a 30-60-90 day plan for manager’s examples, you can effectively showcase your understanding of business and goals to senior management.
People Are Also Reading:
- How to make an effective 30 60 90 day sales plan
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30-60-90 Day Plan: 2023 Guide + Example
Reviewed By
Updated: Dec 22, 2022, 12:00pm

Table of Contents
What is a 30-60-90 day plan, benefits of a 30-60-90 day plan, elements of a 30-60-90 day plan, when to make a 30-60-90 day plan, how to make a 30-60-90 day plan in 5 steps, 30-60-90 plan example, frequently asked questions (faqs).
It can take new employees time to settle in and learn the ropes of a new position. However, employers want to see productivity sooner than later. This is why developing a 30-60-90 day plan is a good idea. It’s a plan that outlines target milestones for employees to hit in the first 30, 60 and 90 days of employment. Follow along to learn more about the 30-60-90-day plan and how to create your own. To help give your employees the best start possible.
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A 30-60-90 day plan is a document that is created either by a new employee or a hiring manager and outlines the goals to be accomplished during the first three months of employment. It breaks goals down into 30-, 60- and 90-day increments. Employees work to hit set milestones that are aligned with the mission of the organization. The goal is to maximize employee output in the first days of being hired, days which can be overwhelming and confusing in many cases. The plan helps simplify what the employee should be doing and focusing on.
The 30-60-90 day plan can be written by the employee or by the hiring manager. Managers may want employees to create their own plans to get the buy-in for the milestones and goals.
What Makes a Good 30-60-90 Day Plan?
A good 30-60-90 day plan takes larger goals and breaks them down into smaller, more digestible milestones. The plan has an ultimate goal set for 90 days and shows steps that are accomplished along the way at the 30- and 60-day marks. While the goals should be accomplishable, they should also be challenging.
A good plan also aligns with the mission of the company. Managers want employees to work on goals that move the company forward. Otherwise, the company may not meet its objectives and goals.
When managers utilize a 30-60-90 day plan for onboarding new employees , they help identify the key goals for the employee in the early days of employment. Not only does it set the parameters for success, but it also empowers employees to manage their own work to a large degree. When employees know what is expected of them, they can spend their day focusing on achieving those goals rather than on tasks that don’t support the plan. The 30-60-90 day plan is the roadmap for success.
A good 30-60-90 day plan has common components that are designed to explain expectations clearly. The first element of the plan is to have the company mission or purpose of the work stated. Then, of course, there are the goals. Goals should be concrete with measurable objectives. A good 30-60-90 day plan also lists resources to help employees accomplish their goals.
Make a 30-60-90 day plan when you onboard a new employee. It will serve as a way to help transition them from a new employee to a valuable team member in a short amount of time. You can also use a 30-60-90 day plan when rolling out new initiatives. This will help existing employees understand the goals and provide a workable path to accomplishing them.
It may also be helpful for a prospective employee to create a 30-60-90 day plan when preparing for an interview. This will show the hiring manager that you are serious about hitting the ground running and making an impact toward objectives and goals.
A 30-60-90 day plan doesn’t need to be complicated. It simply outlines the main objectives of a new employee and gives them guidance on how to accomplish them.
Here’s how to create a 30-60-90 day play in five easy steps:
1. Write the company mission
The very first thing that you should do when creating a 30-60-90 day plan is to identify and write down the company mission. Remember that the plan should align with the company’s mission and goals. By having it on the page for the employee to review, you can help the employee understand their role in the bigger picture.
2. Create the first 30 days’ objectives
Write down the goals for the first 30 days. Limit the goals to three to five to keep things clear. For each goal, write down a key metric that will be used to measure whether the goal is achieved or not.
3. Create the next 60- and 90-day objectives
Just as you did for the first 30 days, write down key goals for the first 60 days. Remember to keep goals limited to three to five goals for clarity. Have a key metric stated for each goal. Do the same for the first 90 days.
4. Provide ample resources for the employee
Because the plan is a guide, you should include any relevant resources that will help the employee accomplish their goals. Resources may include listing certain people to speak with or using certain computer-led tutorials. Give the employee the resources needed to succeed with as little oversight as possible.
5. Evaluate progress
For a 30-60-90 day plan to work, you need to give it time (as the name suggests). Part of the plan is to give said time and then follow-up with an evaluation. Did the employee manage to use the resources provided to hit their objectives?
Plan For: Employee name Date: August 1, 2022
Company Mission: To help consumers find the right resources for retirement and invest their money with our firm.
Goal 1: To complete all onboarding training. All boxes should be checked as complete in the employee file. Goal 2: Review investment products and become familiar with the key benefits. Goal 3: Pass state and federal licensing requirements to sell investment products.
Goal 1: Make first sales calls to potential clients. Goal 2: Work with your manager to develop a key product list to offer clients. Goal 3: Get the first sale in the program.
Goal 1: Consistently make 50 outbound calls per day. Goal 2: Hold at least three sales appointments per day. Goal 3: Generate at least $500,000 in sales.
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Bottom Line
A 30-60-90 day plan is a great way to help onboard new employees (or get an edge in an interview process) because it shows the key objectives for the first three months of employment. It aligns with the company’s mission, helping the employee integrate quickly into becoming a valuable team member. Set realistic goals in a 30-60-90 day plan to see success and build confidence in new team members.
The 30-60-90 day plan is just one tool in the employer’s toolkit. For more insights into managing staff and building strong teams, check out our article on strategic human resource management .
How do I answer what I will do in the first 30-60-90 days?
Prepare for this question in an interview. Make sure you approach it from the perspective of the company’s goals and say what you plan on accomplishing based on what you know about the job description. Don’t hesitate to ask questions to clarify the role before answering the question.
How many slides should a 30-60-90 day plan be?
If you are presenting a plan in a PowerPoint, you want to use three to four slides. The first slide should outline the mission and overall objective of the company, while the next three slides review the goals. Use one slide for each month.
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Hit the ground running with this ultimate 30-60-90 day plan

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What is a 30-60-90 day plan?
6 benefits of a 30-60-90 day plan, when to use a 30-60-90 day plan, what to include in a 30-60-90 day plan, 30-60-90 day plan template for managers, 9 tips for creating a 30-60-90 day plan.
"The more I help out, the more successful I become. But I measure success in what it has done for the people around me. That is the real accolade." Adam Grant, organizational psychologist and BetterUp Science Board Advisor
When it comes to setting your people up for success, a little help goes a long way. How are you setting up your workforce to reach its full potential ?
Well, if you ask any leader, a lot of it comes down to helping your employees think strategically from the start. It’s beyond finishing a project, solving a problem, or completing the menial, day-to-day tasks.
Of course, the day-to-day duties help to get work done. But it’s also helping your employees connect their day-to-day to the larger purpose of work . Why does that purpose matter? How does their work connect to the organization’s goals, mission, or purpose?
When I first started at BetterUp, my manager shared a fully fleshed-out spreadsheet and Google document as part of my 30-60-90 day plan. In these resources, there were targets to hit, milestones to reach, and tasks to complete.
But more importantly than the line items was the sentiment: the strategy behind the 30-60-90 day plan helped to set me up for success. It was that extra mile to help out a new hire that allowed me to onboard successfully to my new role. And it was the help I needed to see the larger vision of how my work connected to organizational success , even if I didn’t fully know it yet.
When we think about helping others around us be successful, having a plan is critical. In fact, 69% of employees are more likely to stay with a company for three years if they had a good onboarding experience.
Having a roadmap for the first three months can help your employees acclimate to the company culture. It'll also help them ramp up to the role and meaningfully connect with others — and ultimately lead to better performance.
Sure, the plan might change. After all, we’re in a rapidly changing world where plans are often etched in pencil instead of stamped in pen. But if you’re hiring new employees or onboarding teammates, it’s important to give your workforce a sense of where you want to see them go.
In this post, we’ll walk through what makes a good 30-60-90 day plan. We’ll also talk about the benefits of a good plan — and even give a template example to help you help your employees.

First, let’s understand what defines a 30-60-90 day plan. The 30-60-90 plan is a key part of a robust onboarding process . And in remote and hybrid work environments, the onboarding process is more important than ever. It’s critical that in these early days of onboarding, you’re building culture and connection with your new employees.
A 30-60-90 day plan is a document or resource that outlines the goals and strategies for a new employee within the first 90 days. It serves as a guide, a resource, and a checklist for your new hires.
When a new employee joins your organization, there’s likely a stage of information overload. In the onboarding process, the employee absorbs a lot of information. They might be networking and setting up coffee chats with other employees. They’re probably in a good chunk of training sessions and other sorts of new hire workshops.
Depending on how your organization runs the onboarding process, your employees are likely trying to ramp up in their new roles. At the same time, they're also soaking in everything they can about the organization. All while your employees are acclimating to the new role, they’re also making connections. Or, at least, they should be.
In short: it’s a lot. It can feel overwhelming to retain all the information a new hire receives. Sometimes, it can lead to confusion or misalignment on overall goals.
But with a 30-60-90 day plan, you’re able to clearly outline the expectations you have for your employee. As a manager, it’s a useful resource and tool to help keep the onboarding process on track. It can also serve as an accountability tool, one where you can ensure your employees are meeting your expectations.
Let’s talk more about what benefits come with a clearly outlined 30-60-90 day plan.

There are plenty of benefits to a 30-60-90 day plan, for both the employer and the employee. Here are six of our favorite benefits to consider.
- It helps optimize productivity
It sets clear expectations
- It helps with goal setting
It can help alleviate the new job jitters
It empowers employees to self-manage their work , it serves as a reminder of priorities , it helps optimize productivity .
Ashley Ballard, social media manager, BetterUp, shared why a 30-60-90 day helped their productivity in the first three months of work.
“I'm someone who benefits from an itemized list of expectations so that I’m not hindering my productivity by feeling anxious about my work product. It also keeps everyone on the same page about the meaning behind your role and how you will directly support team goals.” Ashley Ballard, social media manager
As you’ll notice in some of these benefits of a 30-60-90 day plan, there’s a lot of overlap in what makes an employee productive. For Ashley, it’s clear expectations, alignment on the role, and clear communication about the priorities at hand. One could argue that all the benefits of a 30-60-90 day plan can contribute to overall increased productivity .
It doesn’t get much clearer than getting a document of expectations in written form. At BetterUp, our 30-60-90 day plans come with a “checkbox” field to notch once you’ve completed the task at hand.
Clear expectations can be hard to set, especially at the nebulous start of someone’s employment in a new role. But with a 30-60-90 day plan, you’re able to clearly outline your expectations as a manager.
It helps with goal setting
On my 30-60-90 day plan, I had a list of more administrative or mundane tasks. For example, I needed to upload my information into our HR management system. I needed to review the necessary policies and documents. I needed to set my email signature with the appropriate information.
But it also outlined higher-level objectives. As a marketer and writer, I needed to learn the BetterUp voice, tone, and perspective. My manager clearly outlined blogs and resources that I could read, practice assignments that I could take on, and even some videos to watch. In fact, one of my goals was to write a blog within 30 days.
Many of the new hire checklist items served as foundational tasks to get to me my goal. And by providing me with all the information at once, I could more easily connect the dots to the “why” behind some of the work I was receiving, too.
Have you ever started a new job and not really know what you’re supposed to do with yourself?
In my last job, I attended a half-day new hire orientation . I still remember going back to my desk upstairs, meeting my new manager, sitting down, and logging into my computer. I played around with my systems and got myself set up on my laptop. But after about an hour, I found myself spinning my chair around to my new boss and asking if I could help with anything.
Frankly, I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing with myself. I felt that instant anxiety of not contributing anything meaningful, even though it was just my first day.
There’s a lot of inherent pressure, stress, and anxiety that comes with starting a new job. New job anxiety is totally normal. It happens to all of us.
No matter how great we felt through the hiring process , on top of the world with our offer letter, as the new kid you can feel at loose ends pretty quickly. You waste time in self-doubt or doing unimportant tasks to look busy and loose confidence and momentum. But one way to help alleviate the jitters your employees are feeling is by giving them a plan.
Ashley Strahm, content marketing manager, BetterUp, shared why she finds having set milestones in place can help reduce anxiety .
“I’ve come to experience onboarding as a time where folks are the most hungry, curious, enthusiastic, and eager to please. Having a plan with milestones from the outset means that none of the initial emotions that come with starting a new job overwhelm or cause scattered or inefficient outreach — and anxiety about performance." Ashley Strahm, content marketing manager
Without a 30-60-90 day plan, you couldn’t possibly have made the connections or digested the right resources to help quell those productivity nerves. And without it, you risk a big loss. Those early days are when new hires have the freshest eyes. It’s the best and most optimal opportunity to ask your new hires to observe and provide feedback.
I’ve never heard of a manager that wants to hold their employees’ hands through every project. Sure, there are micromanagers who like to stay close to their employees’ work.
But at BetterUp, we’re big believers in giving employees autonomy to self-manage their work. We talk about this in the context of some of our high-impact behaviors: extreme ownership, bias toward action, craftspersonship, and work to learn.

Managers also need their time to focus on high-impact work and priorities. So when it comes to onboarding a new employee, it’s not plausible to walk your new hire through everything they need to know. And if you were to do so, it certainly wouldn't set them up for success.
A 30-60-90 day plan empowers your employees to self-manage their work. By leveraging a 30-60-90 day plan as part of your onboarding strategy, you’re giving your employees autonomy to build their own schedules. It helps give them the roadmap but how they get to the final destination is up to them.
Hand-in-hand with self-management comes managing priorities. We all know that work is busy. As your employees become more acclimated to the role, it’s likely their workload is gradually increasing.
But with a 30-60-90 day plan, your employees are reminded of their priorities. And it’s on your employees to manage their priorities effectively, which is a good life and work muscle to flex.
So, you might be wondering when to use a 30-60-90 day plan. When is it most effective? What situations will it have the most impact? Let’s dig in.
30-60-90 day plan for an interview
Job seekers, this is for you. If you want to knock the socks off a potential employer, consider putting together a 30-60-90 day plan for your interview. Even if it’s just an informational interview , you can show how you’d approach your first 90 days on the job.
For example, let’s say you’re interviewing for a sales position. From the job description and from your informational interview, you know what markets you’ll be focused on. You also know about some target accounts and have a good sense of the industry.
While you might not know exactly what you are going to be doing, you have a good idea. You’ve worked in software sales for a while, enough to know how to approach breaking into a new market.
So, you decide to come up with a proposed 30-60-90 day plan. You put together a rough sketch in a Google sheet about what you would focus on in your new role .
30-60-90 day plan for a new job
More commonly, 30-60-90 day plans are used in the onboarding process. This is useful for both hiring managers and employees. For example, at BetterUp, I received my 30-60-90 day plan on my first day of employment. It helped to set expectations about what I would be focused on for the next three months.
But some companies also use 30-60-90 day plans for things like performance reviews or even lateral moves within the organization. You can also use 30-60-90 day plans for project-based initiatives.
First, it’s important to understand that 30-60-90 day plans should be personalized based on the employee. For example, a new employee in an entry-level position will probably have a radically different plan than that of a new executive.
And 30-60-90 day plans for managers are going to look different than plans for individual contributors. There are nuances to these sorts of plans because of job responsibilities, work goals , expectations, and experience.
But generally speaking, we can outline four key components of a 30-60-90 day plan.
Expectations and concrete goals
Go-to resources and information .
- New hire checklist or to-do list
- Company mission, culture, the purpose of work
Every 30-60-90 day plan should have clear expectations and concrete goals. As a manager, it’s important to clearly communicate the expectations you have for your employees. For example, my manager has created a couple of documents that very clearly outline the expectations of her employees.
Oftentimes, expectations serve as the foundation for your working relationships. As part of my 30-60-90 day plan, my manager also asked about my expectations. In a lot of ways, it’s a two-way street.
I filled out a document that outlined my preferred working style, my communication style, and how I resolve conflict . It helped both parties to essentially get a good sense of how the other works.
Along the same vein of expectations are goals. My manager expressed some clear goals that she wanted me to reach within my first 90 days. But I also had the opportunity to think about my own personal goals and what I wanted to accomplish.
Together, we iterated on the plan to come up with an action plan. Some of these goals can ladder up to other big milestones that you’d like to have your employees reach along the way.

The world of work is a complex one. Especially in today’s day and age, there’s a lot of information that’s probably changing rapidly.
For example, is your workforce hybrid or remote? What sort of COVID-19 guidelines are in place? How do you submit your expense reports or ask for time off? What systems does your organization use for benefits ? What employee resource groups or culture programs does your organization have?
A 30-60-90 day plan is a good one-stop-shop for all the resources your new hire will need. It’s a great reference and resources with a wealth of information (and can help your employee become more self-sufficient, too).
New hire checklist or to-do list
When an employee joins a company, there are a lot of “tasks” that need to be done. For example, I needed to enroll in my benefits and 401K. I needed to upload my personal contact information into our human resources management system. I needed to upload my Slack photo and put my preferred pronouns on my email signature and Slack profile.
A 30-60-90 day plan is a great place for all of the one-off tasks that every new hire needs to complete. It also helps keep your employees on track with all the administrative and HR tasks needed within the first couple of months of employment.
Company mission, culture, and purpose of work
Last but certainly not least, your employees need to understand the purpose of work. This likely won’t “click” fully in the first 30 (or even 90) days. But it’s important to start drawing connections between their work and the company’s vision early on.
In a recent Forbes article, Great Place to Work® released new data around employee retention . One of the top drivers? Purpose. In fact, employees at top-rated workplaces in the US reported that if they feel their work has a purpose , their intent to stay at said companies triples.
Don’t dismiss the role that purpose plays in your organization. At BetterUp, we’re on a mission to help everyone everywhere live with greater purpose, clarity, and passion . This can only happen if employees understand their purpose and the role of their work in the company’s mission.
We’ve created a free draft 30-60-90 day plan template to use for managers. Access the draft template and start using it today.

30-60-90 day plan for interviews
As mentioned earlier, there are some situations where an employee may prepare a 30-60-90 day plan as part of an interview. Or, perhaps as part of your company’s hiring process, you ask job applicants to put together their plans.
With these elements, you’ll be sure the candidate is ready to hit the ground running. Here are some key components you should look for in a job applicant’s 30-60-90 day plan:
- Short-term goals (generally achievable, time-bound goals)
- Long-term goals (that are also measurable goals)
- Establishing metrics for success
- Outlined priorities (especially for the first week)
- Learning new processes
- Meeting the new team and team members
- Any learning goals (or professional development goals )
Of course, your 30-60-90 day play is going to be catered to each individual. We’re all human with different responsibilities needed. Keep these nine tips in mind as you put together your 30-60-90 day plans.
- Set SMART goals
- Consider what you want your employee to prioritize
- Encourage professional development
- Encourage reflection time
- Outline goals into months: first month, second month, third month
- Ask for input from your employees and direct reports
- Promote ongoing learning about the company culture and purpose
- Adjust (and readjust) as needed
- Follow-up on the progress
You can always work with a coach to help outline what might be needed in your 30-60-90 day plan. A coach will have a wealth of experience in the field and an objective, third-party perspective. With guidance from BetterUp, you can ensure you’re setting up your people for success.

Madeline Miles
Madeline is a writer, communicator, and storyteller who is passionate about using words to help drive positive change. She holds a bachelor's in English Creative Writing and Communication Studies and lives in Denver, Colorado. In her spare time, she's usually somewhere outside (preferably in the mountains) — and enjoys poetry and fiction.
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30 60 90 Day Plan Template for New Managers

As a new manager, you are likely overwhelmed with responsibilities, from understanding the group dynamics of your team to identifying the important short term goals you need to achieve. Anytime I hire new managers, I ask them to prepare a 30 60 90 day plan. This is simply an outline of how they would onboard and become productive in the first 30, 60 and 90 days. If you’re a new manager and are being tasked with making a 30 60 90 day plan, here is a template and guidelines to help:
Before Starting
If you want to stand out and demonstrate dedication to you boss, include this bonus section, “Before Starting.” Leaders want anyone new, especially managers, to be able to hit the ground running the day they start. Prior to starting a new role, you may ask for:
- Any documentation about the company and product
- List of competitors to do basic research on
- Company handbook
- List of each staff member that will be reporting to you
In your plan, note that you’ll spend time researching before officially joining the team. This will take some extra effort on the nights and weekends, but will demonstrate that you are serious about your new management role.
First 30 Days
On your first day and over the following month, the name of the game is “discovery.” Your goal is to learn as much as possible about the team and company. This means asking tons of questions, meeting with each employee or major stakeholder, getting first hand experience with the product and overall increasing your exposure to the operations of the organization. Some specific items you should include in your 30 60 90 day plan:
- Meet with each member of the team and understand their strengths vs weaknesses
- Meet with the senior management team if possible
- Join demos or sales calls to learn about the product
- Assist customer support reps to learn about the product
- Talk to customers to learn about the product
- Identify the current team goals and confirm they are still valid
- Ensure that the team continues to work towards their current goals
- Review your budget and identify gaps
First 60 Days
Implementation.
After the first 30 days, you should be getting pretty comfortable with understanding the company, product and team. It’s now time to begin implementing some changes. You spent time learning and likely have a page of notes on what works and doesn’t work for the team. It’s now time to put it into practice. Consider these items for implementation in your 30 60 90 day plan template:
- Ensure the team is meeting weekly with a clear agenda and action items
- Set the team up sharing weekly written updates to increase accountability
- Create clear goals for the rest of the quarter and present to the team for alignment
- Assess the tools the team is using (e.g. CRM) and confirm they are effective
- Make changes to processes based on what you learned in the first 30 days

First 90 Days
Now that you’ve been in the manager role for two months, you are likely very comfortable with the team members and pace. It’s now time to make larger changes if needed since you’ve had plenty of time to gather data. Depending on your organization’s culture, you can determine what level of change would be appropriate. Consider these items for your plan:
- Assess each team member’s performance and confirm they belong on the team
- Put together a hiring plan for the rest of the year
- Review and adjust the budget for your team for the rest of the year
- Begin replacing any tools you identified earlier is ineffective
- Begin replacing any processes you identified earlier are ineffective
- Continue to hold one on one meetings with each team member on a monthly basis
- Compile a summary and share with your boss (or do it in your Weekly Updates)
Customize for your role
It’s important that you customize this template to include specifics about your role. For example, if you are joining the team as Director of Marketing, you should add marketing-specific initiatives, like personally writing blog posts, reviewing the marketing automation system, etc in addition to the more management-focused items included in this template.
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New Manager’s 30-60-90 Day Plan for Success
Feb 01, 2023

Why a 90 Day Plan is Important for New Managers
A 30-60-90-day plan allows you, as a new manager , to create structure around your goals and provide you with a benchmark against which to measure future success. In this plan, you should prioritize what’s most important for you to achieve or address, and thus avoid being overwhelmed by trying to tackle everything all at once.
The plan is also a way for you to reinforce that you recognize and understand the expectations that have been set for you with regard to your new job, so you can gain the trust of your senior managers.
By revisiting the plan every 30 days (as part of the complete cycle of 90 days), you can assess your progress regularly throughout the cycle, and make adjustments as necessary.
Types of Goals New Managers Should Set
Any goals you set in your 90-day plan should be SMART goals: Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Relevant, Time-Bound.
Types of goals to specifically focus on when creating your plan:
Learning Goals
- Mention any goals you have around learning more about the company, team, the job, etc.
- For specific areas/projects on which you are or will be working, learn what work has already been done, and what’s been planned going forward
Personal Goals
- List goals you have in the realm of personal development
Performance Goals
- Describe actionable goals to be completed within the desired timeframe
- Clarify any present or anticipated need for such adjustments as budget increases, parameters for measuring how the success of initial efforts will affect the overall outcome, and other details
The First 30 Days
Describe what you want to focus on in the first 30 days of your new role. Be as specific as possible, and remember that they should be SMART goals. Here are a few examples:
- Building rapport with new teammates and other cross-department contacts
- Absorbing and taking in as much information as possible. Assessing what work has been done and what needs to be done.
The First 60 Days
Write a more detailed overview on what you need to focus on in the first 60 days, e.g.:
- Move beyond the learning goal phase to focus more on developing actionable goals
- Look for quick wins that you can achieve in the short term
The First 90 Days
Next, develop a more detailed overview of what you need to focus on in the first 90 days, e.g.:
- Take ownership of making key decisions
- Assess performance of the current quarter and plan for the next
- Have a workable idea of what your strategy and specific plans are
30-60-90 Day Plan Template Example
Having a template for your 30-60-90 day goals will help keep you organized as you progress in your new role. You want to avoid overwhelming yourself, so it’s recommended to stick to 2-3 goals that follow the SMART model.
30 Day Plan: Goals
- Attend meetings and read articles to gain greater awareness of current organizational initiatives on which you will be working
- Set a realistic timeframe for learning more about the company to avoid being stretched too thin
- Write a report with your initial reactions to a project and your anticipated actions to address it
60 Day Plan: Goals
- Gain a greater awareness of project/initiative goals by seeking input from others
- Strive to establish good, effective working relationships with colleagues
- Develop a more detailed action plan to address a specific area of the project/initiative and to achieve initial goals
90 Day Plan: Goals
- Have small group or one-on-one meetings with senior staff to increase familiarity with the specifics of the project/initiative
- Revisit initial 30- and 60-day goals to verify whether or not you are on track, and make adjustments as needed
- Present initial findings/recommendations/achievements to your team or to senior managers
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The 30-60-90 Day Plan: Your Secret Weapon for New Job Success (Template Included!)
Hot jobs on the muse.

Whether you’re preparing for an interview or prepping for a new job, making a 30-60-90 day plan can help you set yourself up for success.
A 30-60-90 day plan is what it sounds like: a document that articulates your intentions for the first 30, 60, and 90 days of a new job. It lists your high-level priorities and actionable goals, as well as the metrics you’ll use to measure success in those first three months. Done well, it will help you make a positive first impression on your new employer—or the hiring manager you hope will be your future boss.
SEARCH OPEN JOBS ON THE MUSE! See who’s hiring here , and you can even filter your search by benefits, company size, remote opportunities, and more. Then, sign up for our newsletter and we’ll deliver advice on landing the job right to you.
That may sound like a lot, but luckily we’ve got detailed instructions on how to go about making a 30-60-90 day plan, plus a template to guide you.
Download the 30-60-90 day plan template here .

When to Make a 30-60-90 Day Plan
Many 30-60-90 day plans follow a similar structure, but the level of detail may vary depending on your situation. There are two main times when you might make one: preparing for an interview or starting a new job.
Note: If you’re a manager who wants to make an onboarding plan to help your new hires hit the ground running (without constantly having to ask you what they should do next), you should consider using our self-onboarding tool , a template for outlining your month-one goals for a new hire, as well as creating a week-by-week plan with a thorough list of meetings, readings, and tasks they should tackle in their first month on the job.
Making a 30-60-90 Day Plan for an Interview
If you’ve made it to a late-stage job interview, you may be asked something along the lines of, “What would your first 30, 60, or 90 days look like in this role?” It’s a good idea to prepare to answer this regardless of what level role you’re interviewing for, but it’s more common for higher-level positions.
With a question like this, the interviewer is likely trying to understand your thought process going into the job more than anything. They want to know: Do you understand the role and what it would require of you? Can you get up to speed quickly and start contributing early on? Do your ideas show that you’re the right candidate to fill this particular position?
Even if you’re not explicitly asked this interview question, coming prepared with a plan can help you wow the hiring manager and stand out among other applicants. “Employers are looking for people who are agile and proactive,” says leadership consultant Michael Watkins, author of The First 90 Days: Proven Strategies for Getting Up to Speed Faster and Smarter . “By talking about how you would approach your first 90 days, you demonstrate agility and proactiveness.”
In other cases—more commonly for higher-level management or executive roles—you may be asked to do an interview presentation . Creating a 30-60-90 day plan to present is a great way to show the hiring manager that you understand the challenges a company or department is facing and you have a clear plan for tackling them.
Be sure to include a few specific ideas in your interview presentation—depending on the role you’re interviewing for, that could be suggestions for ways to cut costs, increase sales, or improve customer satisfaction. You want to convey: “I’ve got five good ideas, and when you hire me, I’ve got 50 more,” says career coach Eliot Kaplan , who spent 18 years as Vice President of Talent Acquisition at Hearst Magazines.
Making a 30-60-90 Day Plan for a New Job
If you’re starting a new job, your new manager may explicitly ask for a 30-60-90 day plan, or you may want to create one for yourself to help ease the transition to your new role. In either case, the goal is to set yourself up to hit the ground running—and to be sure you’re running in the right direction.
“If you come in without a game plan and try to tackle everything, you’re going to get nothing done,” Kaplan says. “Come up with a couple things you can accomplish successfully.”
If you’ve already started the position, you’ll have access to internal resources and your new coworkers, which will make it easier to create a detailed, realistic plan. If there are things you’re unsure about—like goals, expectations, or typical benchmarks—ask! You’ll likely impress your new colleagues with how proactive you are, but more importantly, you’ll gather the information you need to be successful.
Elements of a 30-60-90 Day Plan
Before you’re ready to get down to the details of your 30-60-90 plan, you’ll want to think about the high-level elements it needs to include. As the name suggests, you want to think of your plan in 30-, 60-, and 90-day chunks. For each phase, you’ll need to:
- Determine a specific focus
- Set your top priorities
- Make concrete goals that support those priorities
- Determine how you’ll measure success
Our 30-60-90 day plan template has all these items laid out for you.
Typically, the first month of a new job is about learning, the second is about planning and beginning to contribute, and the third is about execution and—when applicable—initiating changes to the status quo. Your specific monthly focus might change based on your role and the company, however.
Within those broad monthly buckets, outline your high-level priorities for each phase. For instance, your priorities for different phases could include learning internal processes, performing your role independently, or proposing solutions to a problem facing the company. Your priorities should be more specific than your focuses, but broader than individual goals.
Setting goals is all about making a plan for how you’ll achieve your overarching priorities. For each phase, set goals that ladder up to your stated focus and priorities. (See our example 30-60-90 day plan below for inspiration.) If it’s helpful, break your goals into categories like learning, performance, and personal goals.
- Learning goals: To set these, ask, “What knowledge and skills do I need to be successful? How can I best absorb and acquire that information and those abilities?”
- Performance goals: These are concrete things you want to accomplish or complete as part of your new role. To set these, ask yourself, “What progress do I hope to make within the first 30/60/90 days?”
- Personal goals: These goals are more about getting to know the people you’ll be working with and finding your place within your new company or team.To set these, ask, “Who are the key people I need and want to build relationships with? How can I establish and foster those relationships, so that I’m seen as trustworthy and credible?”
For each goal, determine at least one metric you’ll use to track your progress. Ask yourself, “What does success look like and how will I measure it?” Not sure how to do that? Keep reading!
6 Tips for Making a 30-60-90 Day Plan
So how do you figure out your focus, priorities, goals, and metrics for a brand new role? You’ll need to gain a deeper understanding of the challenges that the company or department is trying to solve and reflect on how you can make a positive impact within the first 90 days. Here are six tips to make that easier:
1. Think Big Picture
Before you start writing out specific goals and metrics, reflect on your overall priorities. Identify why they hired (or are looking to hire) you, and set priorities that deliver on that purpose. For mid- and high-level roles, you’re likely being brought in to solve a specific problem or lead a particular project. For more junior roles, your priority can be getting up to speed on the basics of your role and how the company works.
“Start with what’s important to you and work out from there,” says Muse career coach Yolanda Owens . “What are the things you’re going to need to know in order to be successful? Use [those] as your compass.”
2. Ask Questions
Whether you’re new to a company or still in the interview stage, asking questions is crucial. In order to set realistic goals and metrics that ladder up to your high-level priorities, you’ll need a baseline understanding of the status quo. Ask things that start with, “What’s the average…” or “What’s typical for…”
You can ask your new coworkers these questions or use early-stage interviews to ask questions that could help you make a 30-60-90 day plan later on. Muse career coach Tamara Ellison suggests asking up front, “What can I tackle in the first 90 days that will allow me to hit the ground running as well as make a significant impact in the organization?”
3. Meet with Key Stakeholders
Establishing healthy working relationships is key to success in any role. If you’ve already started the job, set up meetings with the following people within the first 30 days:
- Your manager
- Other coworkers on your team with whom you’ll work closely
- Other colleagues who are in your role or a similar one
- Any cross-functional partners (on other teams) you’ll work with regularly
- Any external partners (outside of the company) you’ll work with regularly
- Your new direct reports (if you’re a manager)
In each meeting, learn about your coworkers’ roles within the company—and also get to know them as people. Ask lots of questions about the company culture, internal processes, reporting structures, team and company challenges, and other questions that come up as you’re learning the ropes. It’s important to have these conversations before you make plans to change the way things are currently run.
“Too many times, [people] come into the role and say, ‘At my last company, we did it this way,’” Ellison says. “That turns people off. You need to be a student before you become a teacher.”
4. Set SMART Goals
Once you’re clear on your high-level priorities, set specific goals that ladder up to your priorities for the 30-, 60-, and 90-day phases. These goals should be SMART: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-Bound.
For example, instead of “Understand our SEO,” a SMART goal would be, “Within the first 30 days, identify our top 10 target keywords and assess how we’re currently ranking for them.”
5. Determine How You’ll Measure Success
This will likely be different for each of your goals. Metrics are often quantifiable (revenue, page views, etc.), but some goals might have more qualitative metrics, like positive customer feedback. However, try to make even qualitative metrics measurable—for instance, the number of five-star reviews you receive.
6. Be Flexible
Don’t worry if you don’t end up following the plan precisely. Every job is different, so tailor your plan based on what you know about the role and organization, but accept that it will likely change. Ask for feedback throughout your first 90 days (and throughout your tenure at the company). If you have to course-correct as you go, that’s totally fine.
If you’re a team lead or executive, consider adding, “Conduct a SWOT analysis of my project, team, the department or the company as a whole,” to your plan during month two or three. SWOT simply stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. Once you complete this exercise it might help you to adjust the rest of your plan as well as set longer-term goals and strategies.
Also, don’t stress about the length of your written plan—it’s the quality that counts, Kaplan says. “I've gotten [90-day plans] that were two pages long and were perfect, and ones that were 40 pages long and were useless.”
30-60-90 Day Plan Example
Use our 30-60-90 day plan template to start creating your own plan. If you’re stuck on how to fill it in, this example can provide some inspiration.
Focus: Learning
Priorities: Get up to speed on my role, team, and the company as a whole. Understand the expectations my manager has for me, learn how the internal processes and procedures currently work, and start to explore some of the challenges facing the company and my role.
Learning goals:
- Read all of the relevant internal materials available to me on the company wiki or drive and ask my manager for recommendations of articles, reports, and studies I should review. (Metric: Reading completed)
- Get access to the accounts (email, task management software, customer relationship management platform, etc.) I’ll need to do my job. Spend time familiarizing myself with each of them. (Metric: Task completed)
- Listen to five recorded sales calls by seasoned teammates. (Metric: Five sales calls listened to)
- Meet with someone on the account management team to learn about what new clients can expect from the onboarding process. (Metric: Task completed).
Performance goals:
- Make my first sales calls to key clients and prospects. (Metric: Three sales calls completed)
- Ask my manager for feedback on my output and performance. Document the feedback so I can incorporate it in my future performance. (Metric: Task completed)
Personal goals:
- Meet with my manager and as many other new coworkers as possible. Introduce myself and learn about their roles within the organization. (Metric: Five meetings held)
- Set up recurring meetings with everyone I’ll need to work with on a regular basis—including cross-functional and external partners. (Metric: Regular meetings set and attended)
Focus: Contributing.
Priorities: Perform my role at full capacity, with a decreased need for guidance. Start to explore how I can make a unique impact within my role and the company.
- Complete an online training course to learn how to better utilize our customer relationship management platform. (Metric: One course completed)
- Shadow a seasoned member of the team, listen in on at least three of their sales calls, and document what I learn from observing their approach. (Metric: Task completed)
- Make five sales calls a week to key clients and prospects. (Metric: 20 calls completed)
- Ask a seasoned member of the team to observe at least one of my sales calls and give me feedback about how I can improve. (Metric: Task completed)
- Listen to at least four of my own recorded calls and note self-feedback (Metric: Four calls listened to)
- Ask for feedback from my manager and coworkers, and document the feedback so I can incorporate it in the future. (Metric: TBD)
- Schedule coffee or lunch with someone from the company I haven’t gotten to know yet. (Metric: Task completed)
Focus: Taking initiative.
Priorities: Start assuming more autonomy and finding small ways to practice leadership skills. Start to explore goals for the rest of the year.
- Identify and sign up for a conference, webinar, or online course that will aid in my professional development. (Metric: One conference, course, or webinar signed up for)
- Analyze my performance so far and establish key metrics I care about (sales, leads, revenue, etc.). Implement a test to try to improve that metric. (Metric: Task completed)
- Perform my core responsibilities at a higher level based on the metrics I outlined. (Close more sales, increase revenue, etc.) (Metric: TBD)
- Develop an idea for a new project or initiative I can spearhead, and pitch it to my manager. (Metric: Task completed)
- Complete the project or initiative I outlined and get feedback from key stakeholders. (Metric: Project/initiative completed and feedback received from three key stakeholders)
- Get involved extracurricularly within the company by signing up for the corporate volunteer day or a company-sponsored club or sports team. (Metric: One activity signed up for)
With our 30-60-90 day template, examples, and guidelines, you’re well-equipped to land the job you’re after or tackle your first 90 days in your new role. Happy planning!

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Creating 30-60-90 day sales plans can help a salesman be successful at a new job or can be used to help entice an employer into hiring the salesman. Many salesman like to include a 30-60-90 day sales plan in their resume materials when appl...
A 30-, 60- or 90-day plan can be tailored to the industry in which it is used. This is a plan that explains what an employee plans to accomplish within the first 90 days of employment. Examples include plans tailored to a sales, management ...
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A 30-60-90-day plan is a tool for new managers or managers new to their role to gain clarity of what's expected from them. It allows you to
A 30-60-90 day plan is an outline that details what an employee hopes to accomplish in the first 30, 60 and 90 days of their new role. New managers often create
The 30 60 90 day plan is a guideline for the first three months of the manager's employment that can go along with the usual new hire training.
A 30-60-90 day plan lays out a clear course of action for a new employee during the first 30, 60, and 90 days of their new job.
The Ultimate Guide on 30 60 90 Day Plan For Managers · Study the organization's vision, mission, and strategy. · Run an initial stage experimental
A 30-60-90 day plan is a document that is created either by a new employee or a hiring manager and outlines the goals to be accomplished
A 30-60-90 day plan is a document or resource that outlines the goals and strategies for a new employee within the first 90 days. It serves as a
Implementation · Ensure the team is meeting weekly with a clear agenda and action items · Set the team up sharing weekly written updates to increase
30 Day Plan: Goals · Learning Goal(s). Attend meetings and read articles to gain greater awareness of current organizational initiatives on which
A 30-60-90 day plan lays out a clear course of action for a new employee during the first 30, 60 and 90 days of their new job.
A 30-60-90 day plan is what it sounds like: a document that articulates your intentions for the first 30, 60, and 90 days of a new job.